Ministers urged to ‘invest in frontline care’ to improve A&E waiting times

Ministers have been urged to “invest in frontline care” to reduce waiting times in Scotland’s accident and emergency departments amid concerns that delays are causing “needless loss of life”.

The call came despite an increase in the number of patients who were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E within the Scottish Government’s four-hour target time.

This rose to 65.1% in the week ending March 9, up from 63.4% in the previous week.

Health Secretary Neil Gray welcomed A&E waiting times “moving in the right direction”, although he accepted emergency rooms are still facing “sustained pressure”.

Neil Gray must commit to finally putting our patients first. He must invest public funds into frontline care where it’s needed most

His comments came as data from Public Health Scotland showed in the first full week of March there were 9,399 patients who spent longer than four hours in accident and emergency before being either admitted, transferred or discharged.

This includes 3,250 patients (12.1%) who were there for at least eight hours and 1,361 (5%) who were there for half a day or more – although the numbers of patients experiencing these long waits was lower than both the previous week and the weekly average recorded in 2024.

Performance, however, is still well below the Scottish Government target of having 95% of patients in A&E admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “Week in, week out, more than a third of A&E patients are still not being met within the SNP’s target time – and yet ministers still have no credible plan to tackle these delays.”

The Tory MSP added: “With the peak winter period behind us, these waiting times should be easing substantially.

“These preventable delays are leading to needless loss of life, but successive SNP health secretaries have failed to act.

“Neil Gray must commit to finally putting our patients first. He must invest public funds into frontline care where it’s needed most rather than wasting resources on bloated middle management.”

Mr Gray stressed that the “latest weekly figures show A&E performance moving in the right direction” but also told how NHS boards are “still facing sustained pressure and high levels of hospital occupancy which is impacting on patient flow and leading to delays”.

However, he said the Scottish Government has “a clear plan to reduce waiting times and delayed discharges supported by £200 million of targeted investment”.

Mr Gray stated: “We want to shift the balance of care from acute to community and will deliver direct access to specialist frailty teams in every site with a core emergency department by summer 2025.

“This will enable frail patients with complex needs to bypass A&E and receive the specialist care they need in the most suitable location for them – whether that be in hospital or at home – meaning better care for these patients while reducing pressure on our A&Es.”